Name and linguistic reconstruction
Laguz is the conventional normalised form of the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name *laguz. It means water or lake. The asterisk marks a form not directly attested as a rune name in a surviving Elder Futhark inscription.
Sign and historical use
In the Elder Futhark this rune served first as a written character. Its sound value, position in rune rows, and use in inscriptions are more direct historical evidence than modern lists of symbolic meanings.
A rune name could aid memory and occasionally function as an ideograph. This does not mean that every occurrence automatically invoked the name’s entire semantic content.
What the rune poems attest
No Elder Futhark rune poem survives. The Old English, Norwegian, and Icelandic stanzas shown here belong to later rune rows. They help reconstruct names but are not unchanged commentary from the period when the sign arose.
Name traditions refer to water; intuition, subconscious, and emotion are modern metaphorical applications.
Modern symbolic interpretation
Modern rune practice often expands Laguz from the image-field “water or lake”. Such readings can serve as a language for reflection, but they are modern tradition rather than an attested Viking-Age oracle definition.
Rune poems in the original
Old English
Old English Rune Poem
lagu byþ leodum langsum geþuht, gif hi sculun neþan on nacan tealtum, and hi sæyþa swyþe bregaþ, and se brimhengest bridles ne gymeþThe sea seems endless to people when they venture onto a rocking ship, the waves greatly frighten them, and the sea-horse heeds no bridle.
A sense-based working translation of the CLASP transcription; imagery and ambiguous words will be reviewed before final approval.
Old Norwegian
Norwegian Rune Poem
Lǫgr er, fællr ór fjalle foss; en gull ero nosser.Water is a waterfall falling from a mountain; ornaments are made of gold.
A sense-based working translation. The second line is often an independent gnomic statement; a direct semantic link to the rune must not be assumed.
Old Icelandic
Icelandic Rune Poem
Lögr er vellanda vatn ok viðr ketill ok glömmungr grund.Water is welling water, a wide kettle, and the field of the fish.
The final phrase is a kenning for the sea or water as the fish’s dwelling place.